Remarks on critical thickness of a hybrid aligned cell with large elastic anisotropy

We analyze the critical thickness of a hybrid aligned cell, below which the nematic liquid crystal assumes an undistorted configuration. We show that: ( a) if k 11 k 33, the critical thickness exists only in the case of different anchoring energies, between the walls; ( b) if k 11 « k 33, the critical thickness exists only if the anchoring energy for homeotropic orientation is greater than that for the planar orientation. Conversely, if k 11 » k 33, the anchoring energy for the planar orientation should be greater than that for the homeotropic orientation.